How strong is gravity on Jupiter?
Gravity at Jupiter's cloud tops is 24.79 m/s², about two and a half times Earth's. A 100 pound person would weigh about 253 pounds. Jupiter has no solid ground to stand on, but if you could throw from there, an apple that goes 11.5 meters on Earth would land about 5.1 meters away.
This is the math inside Snack Lob, a slingshot game about feeding hungry monsters on eight planets. It is coming to iPad first.
The short version
| Surface gravity | 24.79 m/s² |
|---|---|
| Next to Earth's | 2.53 times |
| A 100 pound person weighs | 253 pounds |
| Air | Thin at the cloud tops, then thicker and thicker all the way down |
| An apple thrown at 23 mph lands | 5.1 m away (11.5 m on Earth) |
| It stays in the air | 0.7 s (1.6 s on Earth) |
Where the numbers come from. Gravity figures are NASA's. The throw distances are worked out from them with the air each place has, the same way the game does it. NASA Planetary Fact Sheet, NASA on Titan.
Try it: Earth, then Jupiter
Pull back on the picture and let go. The apple leaves your hand at the same speed both times.
More questions
Could you stand on Jupiter?
No. Jupiter is a gas giant, so there is no surface to stand on. Its gravity is measured at the height where the air pressure matches Earth's at sea level.
Jupiter is 318 times heavier than Earth. Why is its gravity only 2.5 times stronger?
Because it is also about 11 times wider. The pull you feel drops with the square of how far you are from the center, and 318 divided by 11.2 squared is about 2.5.
How high could you jump on Jupiter?
Not very. A jump that gets you half a meter up on Earth would get you about 0.2 meters there.
Gravity on Mars
Gravity on the Moon
Your weight on other planets
Snack Lob: one throw on eight planets